>It is often said that illegal immigrants in the United States are just hard-working people trying to find a better life; and that they do the jobs that Americans don’t want to do. But, when you look at the facts, illegal immigration is costing Americans far more than what the country and society get in return.

Many illegals do indeed perform jobs that most Americans don’t want, but many are also taking jobs that Americans would be happy to do. A large number of the Illegals that work in industries with heavy reliance on sub-contracting work under the table; that is, they pay no payroll taxes. This is where businesses see the advantage in hiring undocumented workers; they are able to pay them less than prevailing wage, have no worries about unions, do not have to pay health and retirement benefits, etc. But the true cost of these savings are millions of Illegals collecting at least one form of Government welfare (they have no documented income afterall), medical care provided through emergency room visits (raising the costs for everyone else), children in families that pay no taxes being educated and fed in our schools, and the fact that these people do use other government services for which they have not paid taxes (police, fire, roads, parks, etc). Additionally, with no safety nets for most of them a lost job or injury that keeps them from working gives them practically no option for support other than turning to criminal activities.

Statistics say that at least a million and a half Illegals actually receive benefits such as housing subsidies, WIC, free school lunches, and even TANF, SSI, and food stamps. Many of them get these despite the fact that there are actually workers in the family; but because their work is undocumented, they qualify. A recent study, widely endorsed by the media and others, estimated that the average American household pays $1117 dollars per year in taxes that are spent on illegal immigrants. When you consider that only just more than half of American households pay any income tax at all, that must mean that closer to $2000 of the taxes that you personally paid last year was spent on Illegals. I don’t know about you, but I could definitely find a better use for $2000 extra in my budget.

The trend recently found through anti-gang efforts throughout the country has been that an increasing percentage of the gang members apprehended have been illegal immigrants. The numbers, based on arrest statistics, are generally approaching 40% on average throughout the country. Many of these gangs are not only involved in the importation and distribution of illicit drugs, but increasingly they are being arrested for crimes like car-jacking, kidnapping, muggings, assault, and organized prostitution.

The millions of Illegals that enter our country yearly are mainly coming from countries with poor healthcare standards and generally no programs for inoculating their public for killer diseases. Diseases never before seen in US outbreaks have been seen in outbreaks across the country recently. American children have contracted diseases, such as Tuberculosis, in school from improperly screened illegal immigrant children. Many Illegals work in three industries involved with the US food supply; picking crops, meat processing, and restaurant kitchen workers. Those picking crops often work without facilities for using the bathroom and washing hands; think about that next time you don’t thoroughly clean your lettuce or tomatoes. Personal hygiene standards are often very much lacking in their counties of origin and they bring their habits here. My neighbors had their roof redone a few years ago. The crew who did the work had not one person able to speak English, they all spoke Spanish. I witnessed throughout the two days men hiding behind my shrubs to urinate. One guy, I’m pretty sure, was going to do worse until I coughed loud enough that he knew I was there. Illegals working in restaurant kitchens mostly can not read that sign that says, “Wash your hands after using the bathroom”. So, do they; in many of their countries people still commonly urinate in public and do not wash their hands afterward. In some countries outdoor or even public defecation is still not uncommon. So, the influx of people with poor hygiene and poor medical care throughout their lives is a health hazard to us all. Let us hope that the World Health Organization’s declaration that smallpox has been eradicated is true; we in the US mostly stopped inoculating our children for smallpox more than a decade ago. Without a doubt though, we will continue to see disease outbreaks, most commonly TB, that are the direct result of illegal immigration.

Honestly, I would rather pay more for lettuce, restaurant food, a new roof, and lawn service than continue to foot the bills for practically uncontrolled illegal immigration into our country.

Generally speaking, aside from their ethical values, hard-working people are too tired at the end of the work day to commit robberies, muggings, or many other crimes; it is the idle population that is responsible for most property crimes. By continuing to pay handouts to people who do not work, we are setting-up society for continued rises in crime. Studies conducted on crime rates correlation to unemployment show that as fewer people have jobs, more people become the victims of theft.

The feeling of entitlement that is being fostered amongst the welfare segment of the American citizenry is certainly not helping matters. We pay to house them, feed them, educate them, send their kids to summer camp, we buy them cars and cell phones, and much more. I think that because they are given more than the basic necessities, they develop a warped sense that they are entitled to have what others work to obtain. Look at the rash of mob robberies occurring in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago. Go check-out the videos and you will see for yourself a few simple facts; no one committing the crimes appears to be starving or even underfed, the items being stolen are not basic necessities, and they are generally well dressed. The lists of mob-robbery stolen items that I have read to date include designer denim clothing, cell phones, touch pad computers, beer, beef jerky, potato chips, ice cream, candy, and jewelery; desperately hungry people would have taken more basic foods, this is clearly people taking things that they feel they should have but aren’t willing to work toward affording. And, truthfully, most of the time it seems that “munchies” are the main targets; leading me to believe that these are often people supplying themselves for a night of partying.

I used to have to drive past a section 8 housing development (the projects) to get to work. At 07:30 the parking lots were full and there was not a person to be seen. Whenever I had need to go home for lunch for lunch there’d be a couple of people seen, checking mail, and stuff like that. When I passed by at 16:45 the place would be hopping; literally hundreds of people sitting on their park benches in the shade, drinking beer, and smoking (mostly cigarettes, but it was easy to see many people passing marijuana). On the occaisions that I had to work late and didn’t pass by until after 18:00 the party would always be in full swing; loud music, dancing, people wrestling and chasing each other, cars choking the roadway while they stopped (to converse or often trade money for little packets and baggies). I can only imagine what happened as the evening grew later and the beer or munchies ran out. So, here was a whole development of people who slept past noon daily which makes me think they did not work, but they always had beer cigarettes, pot, and nice audio equipment. Furthermore, at least half of the cars in the parking lots were newer and in much better shape than the old pick-up I was driving. When the curtains or doors were open I often spotted bigscreen TVs (can’t miss a 60″ flat panel when you are waiting for the drug transaction in front of you to finish so you can get home). So, the question is, how do people in government subsidized housing afford beer, cigarettes, bigscreen TVs, $1400 wheels and obviously expensive sound systems for their cars, and drugs? It had to be criminal activity; they were either selling food stamps or drugs or committing theft to get these luxury items.

A person working two minimum wage jobs to support their family is generally not partying and committing crime when not at work. Probably they are trying to get some needed sleep after a quick meal and mowing the lawn. This is why I have always felt that welfare benefits should only be provided to the working poor. Give that Mom and Dad each working two or more jobs food stamps, housing assistance, and educational grants. Those people would then be able to maybe just work one job each and spend some time with thier families or go to school to learn new skills. The jobs they vacated would be perfect for all the formerly non-working welfare recipients to move into to qualify to continue receiving benefits. I would rather pay for day care for their children while they worked, than give them the free handouts they get now. If my gut feeling that these are the people committing a majority of the crimes is right, we should also see a nice drop in crime rates because they’ll all be too tired to spend the energy to form-up the posse to go mugging people or breaking into cars and homes.

>This is one of my favorite recent news stories. Welfare recipients in Fairfax County, Virginia are being housed in Luxury Condos at taxpayer expense.

The first link is to the Fox 5 report, while the news Reporter interviews a man obviously coming from work, waiting on a bus to take him home; we get to hear about the pool tables, swimming pools, indoor basketball courts, and beautiful landscaping that welfare recipients (and some honestly disadvantaged people) are being provided with his (and everyone else’s) tax dollars.

The second link is another article that shows some good pictures of the properties in which welfare people get housed while many working tax payers can not afford anything near as luxurious.